By Roxanne Squires
NEW YORK 鈥� In New York City鈥檚 Greenwich Village, a brand-new rooftop expansion and athletic center for Grace Church School represents how urban institutions can utilize every inch of space even when it鈥檚 seemingly not there.
Murphy Burnham & Buttrick Architects (MBB) announced the recent opening of Grace Church School鈥檚 new athletic center; adding a new top floor structure to create a double-height gymnasium.
The school could not build outward 鈥� so the designers decided that they would build upward instead. Although building on top isn鈥檛 optimal, the team was able to design the facility to be mindfully integrated within the existing facility and built to harmonize with its surrounding neighborhood.
The flexible, 14,000-square-foot, fourth-story addition provides various spaces filled with sunlight 鈥� accommodating different physical activities and academic uses.
Although the project is focused on a large, multipurpose gymnasium and new聽gathering聽areas鈥攖he expansion also includes offices, classrooms, locker rooms and聽storage facilities as well as a new fitness center and聽golf simulator room.聽
Students in grades 7-12 are able to access the gym from聽an聽extended stairwell approaching a large skylight, flooding light into聽the core of the building. The gym鈥檚 soaring ceilings include skylights built with anti-glare Solera panels.
At the top of the stairwell, a聽new student commons聽leads into the main gym space and provides space for informal gatherings.
The聽regulation-sized gymnasium can be divided into two spaces 鈥� allowing the space to be used for physical activities as well as performance and gathering space.
The聽new expansion also includes an elegant, curved-steel structure, and concrete slabs set on floor聽jacks that are able to isolate acoustics, reducing vibration and sound聽transmission to classrooms below.
The new facility’s material palette of glass, wood, and steel structural elements also complements Grace Church School鈥檚 original building and interiors.
The result is a highly functional聽and聽efficient space for students with a warm and inviting atmosphere. The new gym opened September 2018.